One Shot
by Empress Akitla
Summary: In an effort to set up a prank on Harvey, Louis stays late at the firm in order to sneak into his office. It was a good thing, too, or no one may have found Harvey bleeding out on his floor. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**Not the first thing I've written for Suits, but the first thing I've posted for it. Kind of wanted to do something different than what I usually see (Mike gets hurt, Harvey grudgingly cares for him).** **Plus, I think Louis deserved a chance to be seen in a different light other than as a weasel in a fic.**

 **My beta and I agree this has a little bit of a different flavor than what we've read for Suits before.**

 **Takes place in Season 2 somewhere, I guess. My timelines with this show are a little fuzzy.**

 **Enjoy! And shout out to Phoebe Miller for beta reading! And for nudging me into writing a second part to this.**

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 **Part I**

"Watch where you're going," Louis snapped as a janitor nearly ran him over.

The janitor ignored him, only hunched his shoulders and disappeared around the corner.

Louis shot a last glare at him, memorizing his face in order to have him written up, and then eyed the darkened offices as he trekked the hallways of the firm. The associates and paralegals had all gone home. What a bunch of weaklings. They didn't know what hard work was. How many all nighters had he pulled as an associate? If he remembered correctly, and of course he did, his record was three nights in a row, living solely off of takeout and coffee. Even into his tenure as a Senior Partner he was always here late into the night, past the time when most of the others went home.

He'd venture it was most likely only him along with a few janitors left in the building at this hour, which is precisely why this was the perfect opportunity to sneak into Harvey's office. Since they had gotten back onto somewhat even footing, well, it was never really even between them, so it was more like gotten into better graces with each other, he had been wanting to prank him. They'd done it to each other a lot as associates, but like he had told Mike, they'd become enemies rather than frenemies over the years.

Speaking of, he didn't see Harvey's Golden Boy working late in the bullpen. Then again, Harvey himself typically didn't stay late, either, unless he was working a difficult case. Thanks to his superior snooping skills, Louis knew he wasn't. He was probably off wooing some drop dead gorgeous woman like he was James Bond or something. It was absolutely frustrating that things like looks and flirting just came naturally to him.

Louis cocked a little grin to himself as the dark office came into view, pushing his irritation aside for the time being. He had craftily decided what prank he wanted to pull. When it came to Harvey, he had to be careful about what he did. If he shot him with a water pistol, Harvey would blow him away with a fire hose. The prank had to be just right, enough to elicit a reaction but not an overreaction.

Donna was long gone from her desk. That was a major reason why he had to wait until late into the night. The guard dog, the beautiful, fiery headed guard dog, wouldn't let him anywhere near the office during the day and he needed more time than her short bathroom break to set up his prank.

Casting a quick look around, because wouldn't it be his luck for Harvey or Mike to show up at that very moment, he grabbed the door handle and pushed it open.

He immediately knew something was wrong. Stiffening at the sound of harsh breaths, he twisted at the waist and searched the office with wide eyes, not daring to even scuffle his feet any further.

"Harvey?" He called hesitantly.

There was a rasp over by the window. He took a step forward and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

"Oh my god," he rushed around the expensive leather chair and dropped to his knees. "Harvey, can you hear me?"

That harsh breathing had been coming from him. Louis swallowed thickly and shrugged out of his suit jacket, wadding it up with no thought given to how pricey it was. He pressed it down on what was obviously a gunshot wound in Harvey's torso.

Harvey bared his teeth in pain and his eyes fluttered open. They wandered around the room numbly before landing on him. "L...Louis? The hell?"

Louis licked his lips. Harvey was ashen, his face slick with sweat and his eyes glassy. The carpet underneath him was turning a sickly shade of crimson with all the blood. There was so much blood.

Using one hand to keep the pressure on the wound, he dug his cellphone out of his pocket. His fingers shook and left bloody smudges on the screen as he dialed 911.

"I need paramedics at Pearson Darby. What's my emergency? Let me put it simply for you: my friend is bleeding out right in front of me! Get security to lead them to Harvey Specter's office, and do it now, or so help me, I will sue you so hard you won't be able to afford to live in a shoebox in the gutter in New Jersey."

"Friend, huh?" Harvey croaked.

He glanced down at him and gave him a not-so-gentle shake as his eyes drifted closed. "Harvey, stay awake!"

Harvey sucked in a breath and opened his eyes only to glare at him. "Are you trying to kill me?"

Louis scowled, looking down at the jacket he'd pressed against him and realizing just how much pressure he was putting down. "What? The great Harvey Specter can't handle a little pain?"

"A little pain?" Harvey pulled a rasping breath in between clenched teeth and exhaled it in a ragged cough. "Next time you can get shot."

Whatever he was going to retort died on his tongue at the sight of blood in Harvey's mouth. Apparently, Harvey noticed it, too, and a brief flicker of fear came over his face as he looked up at Louis.

"Oh god. It's okay, you're going to be fine, the paramedics are on their way," he said.

Harvey nodded subtly, and that was when the icy tingle went down Louis' spine. Denial flooded his veins. This could not be happening. This was all some sort of crazed dream. Harvey never accepted reassurances from him, never showed pain in front of him, and never ever showed fear in front of him. There was no way this was real, no way someone had managed to smuggle a gun into the firm only to shoot Harvey and leave him to die.

Only, the warm blood on his hands made it all too real.

Making sure Harvey's eyes were still open and tracking, Louis really looked at where the bullet had torn through him. The wound was midway on the left side, just about at the base of his rib cage. An inch or two higher and it would have gone into his heart. If he had one. Lawyers didn't have hearts. It was something Louis had been told many times and a standard he held to despite how hard his own heart was thundering in his chest.

He tried to push aside the overly loud heartbeat in his ears to listen to Harvey's breaths. They sounded wet and shallow. Like liquid was present. Liquid like blood. "I think...I think the bullet may have punctured your lung."

A ghost of a smirk tugged at Harvey's lips. "When did...you go to med school?"

"You're delirious," Louis muttered under his breath. "If you had actually paid attention during those First Aid classes that we're required to take-"

"Don't remember GSWs being covered," Harvey said. He fell into another coughing fit, this one more prolonged than the last. A low groan came from his throat. Louis blanched at the blood flecked on his lips. "You don't have to press so damn hard."

"Excuse me for trying to keep all your blood from pouring out over your two thousand dollar suit," he sniped. He didn't say aloud that he was thinking about how his blood was actually pouring into his lung and was coming up into his mouth now. Not good, not good, not good.

"Sorry."

His eyebrows shot up to his admittedly receding hairline. "No, no, no, no. You never say sorry, and I swear if that's the last thing you ever say to me-"

"Don't worry," Harvey murmured. "I'll make your…life Hell...by haunting you."

"Harvey," Louis started, then squawked in panic as Harvey's eyes rolled up into his head and slid closed. He tapped his face. "You cannot do this to me, you bastard!"

The following events passed by in a blur for him. The paramedics arrived, finally, and ushered him away from Harvey, leaving him as a spectator in the corner of the room while they worked. He missed most of what they were saying, instead staring as they opened up Harvey's shirt which allowed him get a solid look at the damage done, and then immediately wished he hadn't as his stomach churned. Beyond that, the only thing he caught was that he still had a pulse. Barely.

And then just as quickly and suddenly as it had happened, the paramedics were gone. He was left standing in Harvey's office all by himself, wondering if they'd ever play another prank on each other.

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 **Will post Part II tomorrow. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**And here is the second part. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Part II**

Louis frowned as his heart skipped a beat, thudding against his ribcage unevenly. He ducked around the corner before he could be spotted lurking. Well, not lurking. Spying, perhaps? Scoping out the situation? Either way, he didn't want to be caught, so he swiftly went around the corner and cut through the bullpen. Today was not a good day for his anxiety. Not that the last month had been a day in the park for his nerves, anyway, but today was bad. All he wanted to do was retreat to his office and stay there.

He breezed by the cubicles and slowed. His stubborn nature urged him to keep moving, but every fiber in his being as head of the associates resisted and made him backpedal a couple of steps.

"And what, pray tell, are you doing looking at tattoos rather than going over the Trapp briefs?" he questioned as he hovered over Harold's desk.

"Louis! I – uh, well – there was this – I'm – the briefs – I'll get right on them," Harold stammered out, the color draining from his already pale face.

"If you think you're going to get off the hook that–" Louis broke off midsentence as he caught a certain scrawny associate walk into the bullpen via his peripheral vision.

Said associate paused and took a step toward him. "Hey, Louis–"

He fled the bullpen, leaving a baffled Harold in his wake, and giving no indication of having heard Mike. Once out of the bullpen, he navigated by the breakroom to grab something, anything to help take his mind off this situation. An ice cold prunie, a bran bar, he'd even accept the dregs of the coffee pot, but the flicker of red hair through the glass door sent him speed walking back to his office as quickly as a human could without running. He definitely couldn't interact with Donna today, forget Mike.

A feeling of security and safety swept him up as he made it and shut the door behind him, sagging against it slightly before straightening in case someone saw him. He was beginning to question the practical use of so much glass in their firm. Sure, it was sleek and modern, but he could use some solid oak boards to hide behind right now.

His breath caught as he looked at his desk. "What?"

Glancing around for a hidden camera, because people weren't this nice to him, he slowly approached the vase. At first, he could feel the tingle of pollen in his nose before he got close enough to smell it, and then realized he didn't actually have any pollen in his nose and it was more of a Pavlov's dog type of thing. The neatly arrayed flowers weren't real, but rather were delicately folded pieces of paper in some of the finest origami he had ever seen.

He gave a soft laugh and lightly touched a lavender petal.

"I'll never understand your obsession with folded paper."

Louis spun around and felt his heart give a kick again, except this time the ghost he had seen wandering around the office this morning had him cornered. At least, to him it felt like seeing a ghost.

It was Harvey's first day back after a month of being in the hospital for a week and three weeks under, as he had heard Mike say, house arrest. Jessica had forced him to stay at home after he was released in order for him to rest up. Supposedly. Louis happened to have his finger on Pearson Darby's pulse and knew for a fact that Harvey had still been working on cases at his condo. That was supported by the fact that Mike had managed to convince Jessica to let him work from Harvey's home two days a week. If Harvey had simply been resting, he wouldn't have needed Mike around. Nor would Donna have mysteriously been gone as well.

"What? You actually have nothing to say?" Harvey asked and quirked a smirk at him.

He was paler than usual, thinner than usual, looked absolutely tired. Perhaps he wasn't a ghost, maybe he was a zombie. Louis fidgeted and cast his eyes around his office. "You look like crap."

"And yet, I still look better than you."

There it was. The quipping, the mocking, the bantering. Louis had been sure, he had been positive he was never going to hear Harvey say anything about his imaginary wife or his suits or his love of ballet ever again. Him standing here in his office smirking at him was almost too good to be true. When he had seen him here this morning, he had honestly feared it was a ghost. Feared the doctor's words that night that he was going to make it had been concocted by his desperate imagination. That the cops catching the man responsible, the janitor that had nearly ran him over that night, had been make believe. That Harvey was dead. And this was his ghost. Or maybe this was his specter would've been more fitting.

"Louis?"

His feet carried him across the floor of their own accord until he was face-to-face with Harvey. He wrapped his arms around him gently, keeping in mind this may indeed be a real person and not a ghost, and he didn't want to jostle any bandages hidden under the classy navy blue suit.

The startled exhale seemed real enough, as did the arms that hesitantly returned the hug. Louis blinked rapidly and swallowed. A ball of tension that had been in his stomach for the last month started to unwind. Harvey was alive.

"Okay, getting a little awkward."

He hastily removed himself and took a deep composing breath. "Well, now that you're back from your little vacation, you can handle your fair share of cases."

"Aw, did you pick up the slack for me?" Harvey grinned condescendingly at him.

Louis waved a hand in the general direction of the bullpen. "That's what I have an army of associates for. And, since you're back, that means Mike Ross won't be distracted with his bleeding heart, and can get back to helping with the Trapp briefs."

"I'll admit, the kid's a regular mother hen. But just because I'm back and he's back doesn't mean you get him back. He's still my associate," Harvey said. "Also, Jessica told me you've been handling my clients. Don't think you'll be keeping any of those for yourself."

As Harvey turned to walk out, he couldn't help himself. Maybe it was the idea that he never knew what could be his last words to his frenemy, maybe it was because a weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he felt a genuine pip of joy, but he said it.

"Eventually, I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!"

Harvey directed an impassive face at him, but he could see the underlying amusement before it was displayed on his face in a cocky grin. "You think I'm pretty?"

"Get out of here. I don't like the definition of death warmed over standing in my office," Louis made a shooing motion.

Harvey's face remained impassive, but he could see the underlying amusement fade to a more somber emotion before he walked away. He let out a breath and turned back to his desk to examine the origami flowers. His brow furrowed at the small white card tucked amidst the purple, red, orange, and green papers. Moving around to sit in his chair, he flipped the card open and paled.

 _Thanks for saving my life, Louis. Don't tell anyone I said that. I will deny it._

He'd just received a thank you from Harvey Specter? And that meant the origami bouquet had to be from him. A smile broke out across his face as he sat down–

–and promptly bolted upright at the sound of an airhorn. He glanced under his chair to see one taped to it and stood up angrily, until he heard the chuckle from just outside his door and saw a navy blue shoulder disappear from view.

Once his heart settled to a normal rhythm, he let the smile return. Things were going to be okay.

 **-Fin-**

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 **I just wanted to do something different with Louis. I have a soft spot for the guy, though I'm not sure why. Hope you enjoyed, and maybe I'll write more for this fandom someday!**

 **Thanks for reading!**


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